Gilded Soul

Chapter 34 Flare Up

The next day, Harry took a trip on his broom. It was a beautiful mild evening and Harry decided he needed a reprieve from the castle. It had been an arduous day with the gossip of Draco and Harry being together once again, and having to dodge Anthony at every turn. He never noticed how often he crossed paths with the boy until he no longer wished to do so.

Draco stayed by his side the entire time, their hand holding taking on a completely different meaning to them than what the school speculated. Touching was not permitted in class however, and none of their teachers allowed them to share a table again, not even McGonagall, who refused to ‘uproot the class once again for their shenanigans’.

It was inevitable that without Draco’s calming influential touch, that Harry and Snape would have a massive blow out. Potions had been rescheduled for the last course of the day in order for them to have a practical trial at their potions exams. They were in the Great Hall instead of the dungeons and Snape seemed more agitated than usual. The incident had started off relatively minor, with the professor taking away points for improperly stirring his potion. It then progressed into a shouting match, which it seemed they both were determined to win. It came to a head when Snape gave Harry a detention and Harry refused it.

Draco ended up with his own detention for getting up and placing his cool hands against Harry’s in the middle of the argument. It calmed Harry though.

“Harry, what were you thinking?” Draco moaned as they made their way from class, Hermione scurrying to catch up.

Harry shrugged. “The man just knows how to push my buttons. Even knowing what I do about him now, it doesn’t make it any easier. It might even make it worse, it seems like he’s taking out all his aggression for my father against me.”

“Well maybe he is. Not that you deserve it, but could you blame him? I’ve seen how close you look to your father. It’s probably pretty hard for him to even have you in his class after everything that happened when he was a student here,” Draco said thoughtfully.

“That’s no excuse,” Harry muttered. “He’s the adult, he should get over it.”

Draco shrugged, dropping the subject. It was too much of a sore spot with Harry, and he didn’t want to fight. “Maybe you should just think about how you respond though before you get us both another detention.”

“Sorry about that. I could have handled him though,” Harry grumbled.

Draco snorted and rolled his eyes. “Really? You were doing such a fantastic job up till then.”

Harry sighed. “You don’t have to go.”

“To detention? Yes, Harry I do. Unlike you I don’t have super powers and I still have a respect for authority figures.”

“Humph.”

Draco laughed. “Seriously, Harry, you only have a little over a year left. You should just bide your time and try not to get too carried away with your power trip.”

“My power trip? Is that what you think this is? You think I want any of this? That I wanted to not be able to control any of this without you? Do you know how hard that is for me? I have to have you touching me, all the time, or I completely lose my temper.”

This was exactly what Draco was hoping to avoid, he grabbed for Harry’s hand to calm him down, but Harry jerked it from his reach. “No. I’m just going to have to get control of all this on my own. I can’t be depending on you.”

Draco’s mouth dropped open, affronted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Harry looked guilty for a second but it quickly dissipated in the flames of his anger. “Just… I need to be alone.” With those parting words Harry spun on his heel and took off for the courtyard.

--

Draco looked over his shoulder at Hermione, who looked extremely put out. “Draco, I swear sometimes you just don’t know when to shut it do you?”

Draco shrugged, exasperated. Had he really managed to mess it all up again in such a short time? “Maybe he really is better off without me.”

“No,” Hermione said quickly. “Don’t start with that nonsense again. Harry just needs to get a grip on all the changes that are happening to him. You just need to be more… supportive, and less argumentative.”

Draco laughed painfully. “Believe it or not, Hermione, that was me trying to be less argumentative.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “What am I going to do with you, Malfoy?” she huffed and walked toward the library. They only had an hour or so until dinner and she wanted to do more research on Harry’s new powers.

Draco followed close behind her and then caught up to walk beside her. “Do you mind if I join you? I think I’m going to let Harry cool off before I try and track him down.”

“Probably for the best,” Hermione sighed. “Come on then,” she replied, grabbing his hand and hauling him toward the library.

--

They hadn’t got much done in the library. Hermione chattered on about the developments in the prophecy and Harry’s newly found phoenix abilities. All the subjects she was currently obsessed with just reminded him that Harry wasn’t there holding his hand anymore. It also reminded him that Harry didn’t want to be there and that he didn’t feel like he could depend on Draco.

He kept trying to distract his thoughts but couldn’t. Eventually he began tuning Hermione out and doodling pictures of dragons and phoenixes on his parchment. It was these images that had him search out a particular book in the restricted section, giving him an idea that could potentially solve Harry’s dilemma.

--

Harry didn’t show up for dinner, but Hermione didn’t seem too concerned by it. “Harry does this a lot, Draco. Calm down.”

He tried.

It didn’t work. He continued to watch the door all through dinner waiting for Harry to make his fashionably late entrance. When they were both finished, Hermione said good-bye and made her way up to her own common room.

Draco stayed in the great hall until all the other students had gone, then grudgingly went up to the Room of Requirement to wait for Harry.

His book proved quite useful, and he soon had a ritual spell that would help Harry. He dozed off in his armchair by the fire, waiting for Harry to come back so that he could show him his news.

--

Harry nearly collapsed from exhaustion when he made it into the Room of Requirement. It was late and he was spent. He had spent hours trying to control his magic without Draco’s aide and only managed to burn a new clearing into the forbidden forest. The Centaurs kicked him out for the disturbance. He wouldn’t be welcome back there for a long time.

He found Draco asleep in his usual armchair, a large book balancing in his lap. He brushed gentle fingers across his forehead, pushing blond strands from the boy’s eyes. He always looked so peaceful when he slept, and it wasn’t the first time Harry thought ‘angel’ when he looked upon him. The flickering firelight across his sharp pale features, made him look hauntingly beautiful. “I don’t deserve you,” Harry whispered, placing a chaste kiss on his dragon’s cheek.

“You should let me decide what you deserve,” Draco mumbled, not bothering to open his eyes.

Harry chuckled lightly. “You awake then?”

Draco nodded and yawned. “What time is it?”

The yawn transferred over to Harry. “A little after midnight.”

“You still upset with me, or did you stay away long enough?” Draco asked, frowning.

A soft smile played on Harry’s lips. “I’m sorry I got mad.” His fingers were laced with Draco’s and the forgotten calm was soothing the remnants of Harry’s previous anger.

“I think I have a cure for you.” Harry only blinked, so Draco continued. “This book has contains magic transference spells,” he said, gesturing to the book in his lap.

“And?”

Draco smirked, and he realized it had been awhile since he had done so. He had felt do distraught for weeks that he was only able to muster a weak sneer for this fellow housemates, and then the last weekend had been so cozy with Harry that he was sure his face had been plastered with a stupid grin for the entirety of it. Smirking felt good. It felt right. It meant he finally knew something that Harry didn’t and he wasn’t completely useless.

“The dark mark is a kind of magical transference spell. It’s what made me think of it originally. His is only one sided though, so to create a bond between us that would allow us to draw on the energies of one another, we would have to mark each other.”

“I… still don’t understand. You want me to give you the dark mark, and vice versa?” Harry was very pale when he spoke those words.

“No, no,” Draco sighed. “I was just citing an example of one that you would be familiar with. There are all sorts of versions and levels of these spells. Voldemort’s is actually a smaller scale spell in the spectrum. He can send pain through it, or summon people to him, but that’s about the extent of the connection the mark creates with his followers.”

“I don’t need a mark to summon you and I don’t want to cause you any pain,” Harry said, still looking peeked.

“Would you please stop interrupting?” Draco huffed. Harry nodded and the Slytherin ran his fingers through his hair before continuing. “What we would do is different from his, vastly different. We would mark each other with a spell that would allow you to tap into my calm, so that you wouldn’t need to be touching me for it.”

“About that, listen I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that I didn’t want to touch you all the time, or that I couldn’t depend on you. I do, want to touch you I mean.” Harry was stumbling over his words. “I just know it’s not possible, and I don’t want to lose control of myself every time I’m not able to touch you…. also I do depend on you, and I know I can, Draco…”

Draco silenced him with a long deep kiss. “I already know all this, Harry,” he said softly when they broke apart.

Harry chuckled. “You’re pretty clever, huh?”

Draco smirked again and pointed to his chest. “Slytherin.”

“Right,” Harry replied with a smile. “I almost forgot.”

Draco looked affronted for a moment but quickly got back into his explanation of the transference spell. “As I was saying, the spell we can use to mark each other would be very different to what Voldemort used, and it would go both ways, instead of only one of us being able to use it.”

Harry nodded. “Okay, I can understand the benefits on my side, but what would you get out of it?”

“Well for one, if I was nearby, and I saw you losing control, like this afternoon in Snape’s lesson for instance, I could activate our mark and send the calming waves to you. In fact,” he started, opening the book again. “I think we could even arrange it where I could tell if you needed it or not through the mark, so I wouldn’t even need to physically see you.”

“That would solve the issue of me fighting Voldemort alone,” Harry said, grinning.

Draco frowned. “No. I’m still going to be there, but yes, in theory it would solve that issue, but it’s a moot point, because I’m going.”

Harry rolled his eyes but chose not to argue. “So how else? Why would you want to be bonded to me like this? The effects still only seem to benefit me.”

Draco didn’t look up from his book and chewed lightly on his bottom lip, yet another mannerism he seemed to have picked up from Harry. “I just… want to have a connection to you,” he started shyly. “I was going crazy this afternoon when you took off. I would like some way of knowing that you’re okay.”

He looked up expecting to be refused, but Harry just had a larger grin on his face. “That sounds reasonable. Will it work the same way for me?”

Draco nodded, still not able to find his voice. Something about asking Harry to bond with him in this manner made him anxious. They would mark each other and they would be welded together forever, and constant pull of power between them. What if when all was said and done, Harry didn’t want him anymore? He would still have a permanent reminder of him embedded in his flesh.

“It’s permanent, Harry. Just like the Dark Mark, it will be on your skin forever. Even if you leave me, my mark will still be there, you would still be able to tap into me, and I you.”

Harry nodded.

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“Should it?” Harry asked. “I have no intentions of leaving you.”

Draco let out a breath he didn’t even realize he had been holding. “Good, then let me show you the spell.”

--